Field Report

Field Report
Six Moon Designs Comet Pack
July 26, 2005

Manufacturer: Six Moon Designs
URL: http://www.sixmoondesigns.com
MSRP: $180 US (with optional stays)
Year Model: 2005
Listed Weight: 27 ounces/765 grams, with optional stays (included for this test)
Tested Weight: pack with stays: 26.7 ounces/757 grams
                            pack w/out stays: 22.1 ounces/627 grams
                            stays alone: 4.6 ounces/130 grams
                            detachable hipbelt: 4.5 ounces/128 grams
                            pack w/out stays or hipbelt: 17.6 ounces/499 grams
Capacity:   main packbag 2600 cubic inches/42.5 liters
                   extension collar 450 cubic inches/7 liters
                   external mesh pockets 650 cubic inches/10.5 liters
                   total capacity 3700 cubic inches/61 liters
Tester: Colleen Porter
Tester biography can be found at the end of this report.

Product Description: A semi-frameless, top-loading, lightweight backpack. I say "semi-frameless" because of the option to include two aluminum stays, and because built into the pack is an internal sleeve designed to utilize a sleeping pad as a de facto framesheet. Several components of the pack are removable - the stays, the hipbelt, and the shoulder straps can all be stripped off. The main body of the pack is a typical cylindrical sack, made of 70 denier siliconized nylon, a heavier weave of nylon than the 1.1 ounce weave that I am accustomed to seeing. The extension collar is made out of 30 denier siliconized nylon, which is the more standard 1.1 ounce weave that so many ultralight products on the market are made from. The very bottom of the pack, which generally takes the most abuse, is made from a much heavier-duty 420 denier nylon pack cloth. Sewn to the outside of the main packbag are three large mesh pockets - one on each side and an even larger one on the back. The tops of these pockets are elasticized, but other than that there are no closures for the pockets. There are three compression straps made from 1/2 in/1.25 cm wide webbing, all of which are located across the back of the pack, rather than on the sides. Two of the three straps are over the rear mesh pocket. The Comet features two ice axe loops, both also made from 1/2 in/1.25 cm webbing, each with a thin hook-and-loop closure to hold the axe in place higher up on the pack. The extension collar does not cinch closed, rather it closes with hook-and-loop and then rolls down and is closed again with a buckle, much like a drybag closes. There is also a webbing top-strap which then buckles over the top of the packbag. There are hydration tube ports above where the user's left or right shoulder would be, but there is no dedicated bladder pocket inside the pack.

The shoulder straps and hipbelt are padded but minimalist. The straps and hipbelt can both be adjusted and moved up or down along the length of the pack, in order to fit a wider range of torso lengths. The Comet does feature a low-profile lumbar pad, which is sewn onto the pack body but is also attached via a large patch of hook-and-loop. This allows the lumbar pad to be folded down so that the hipbelt can be adjusted or removed.

Inside, the pack features a largish pocket, sewn against where the user's back would be. This is the Pad Pocket, intended to use the wearer's sleeping pad as a framesheet. The pocket does not extend all the way up the interior of the bag, but stops about 7 in/18 cm below the top of the main packbag. There is a hook-and-loop closure that attaches over the sleeping pad and tightens the Pad Pocket as best it can. There is also a very small pocket, about 3 in/7.5 cm deep by 8 in/20 cm wide, at the top of the main packbag on the user's right side. It opens and closes horizontally and seals with a hook-and-loop closure.

Field Information: Testing has taken place excluisvely in southern California. As of now, I have used the Comet at elevations ranging from sea level to over 8000 feet/2438 meters. Weather has ranged from cool, cloudy, and damp, to hot and dry. Trails have ranged from smooth & maintained to eroded and rocky. The Comet was used as a daypack and as luggage on a week-long campout on the California coast, exposed to the blazing sun every day and the damp ocean fog every night. We are planning some visits to the Sierra Nevada this summer, and perhaps the Grand Canyon in September. Alas, the Montana trip I mentioned in my Initial Report has been canceled, so I will have to figure out another way to test the Comet for use on and in the water.

Performance So Far: The Comet is a comfortable, versatile backpack. I have loaded it with around 35 lbs/16 kg of gear, food and water for one family trip, and it handled the load with great stability and comfort. I crossed several steep, crusty, wet snow patches on that trip and the Comet never shifted or gave me any reason to worry. It has been used multiple times as a daypack and a makeshift duffel bag. Once, I even stuffed it with 3 gallons/11 liters of ice (in bags, of course) and carted said ice back to our campsite. I think I might have exceeded the maximum recommended weight that time, and I was using it without the hipbelt!. In short, I like the Comet so far and am glad to be testing it. I have a few minor complaints and some mild misgivings about the pad-based frame. I'm going to go through my questions and test plan as specified in my Initial Report, so that I can share with you what I have discovered about the Comet in the last two months.

As a overnight-or-longer backpack, The Comet is comfortable and is a step up, frame-wise, from traditional ultralight packs (which tend to consist of a packbag, shoulder straps, external mesh pockets, and not much else). For a penalty of only 9.1 ounces/258 grams, the stays and belt transform the Comet from a rucksack suited only to ultralight loads into a semi-framed pack that I wouldn't hesitate to use on a week-long trip. With the stays & belt on, I have used the Comet at (and possibly over) the recommended maximum weight and have had no complaints about how the pack carried. This is a pack that is well-suited to lightweight/ultralight packers who have trimmed their weekend trip weights down to 20 lbs/9 kg, but who also want a pack for longer trips with no resupply options. It is also well-suited to heavier packers who take shorter trips, and to folks who hike into a base camp and then dayhike to other attractions, since the Comet can effectively double as a daypack. Adjusting the pack to fit various users is quite easy and quick to do. I can fit it to me with no problems, and my 6-foot/1.8-meter-tall husband can wear it comfortably as well.

To convert the Comet into a daypack, I cinch the three compression straps as tight as they will go and then begin filling the pack, letting the straps out as necessary to accomodate whatever I need to pack for that particular hike. When I have used it in this capacity, I have never bothered with putting a sleeping pad into the Pad Pocket, but I have always kept the stays in. Without the stays, I feel the Comet is too floppy when it isn't stuffed tightly, and my daypack loads are too small and soft to stuff the Comet to sufficient tautness. I have tried using the Pad Pocket as a bladder pocket on day hikes, but the Pad Pocket is too large and also extends all the way to the bottom of the packbag, so my bladder just ends up slumped at the bottom of the pack. I have tried putting the bladder into the pack, against the backpanel area, halfway through packing and then packing additional items around it to hold it in place, and this has worked fairly well. But the lack of a dedicated bladder pocket means the Comet is unsuitable for use as a simple hydration pack

About the Pad Pocket - it can hold a bigger sleeping pad than I had anticipated. On my last backpacking trip while I was still pregnant (I just had a baby on June 24th, 2005), an ultralight pad would not have been sufficient to give me a good night's sleep. So I packed my 3/4-length, 2 in/5 cm-thick Therm-A-Rest LE into the Pad Pocket. I was actually afraid it wouldn't fit, but it did with no problems, and I was still able to fill the pack with most of the gear my family would need for that trip (my husband carried some of his gear in the child carrier - we also have a three-year-old child). I have also placed two pads into the Pad Pocket at the same time - my 3/4-length Therm-A-Rest Prolite 3 and my Bozeman Mountain Works Torsolite.   Even with these two pads, I was still able to slide a full 4-liter water bladder into the Pad Pocket as well, but the same problem applies - the bladder still slips to the bottom of the pack and slumps there, lowering the pack's center of gravity.

That leads me into my thoughts about the pad-based frame. There's no denying that it works - in conjunction with the stays. Without the stays, all the typical shortcomings of a frameless pack still apply. Even with the Pad Pocket to contain the sleeping pad as a framesheet, the Comet will still assume a barrel-like shape when fully packed. I have not found a way to make the sleeping pad provide the same kind of flat backpanel that a hard plastic framesheet will. I have tried putting the pad in fully deflated, packing the remainder of the gear, and then re-inflating the pad. I have tried putting in the pad almost fully inflated and then packing the gear. I have tried packing with the Comet laid flat on a table, frame down, hoping that gravity might help me get the backpanel a little flatter, but no such luck. Even my Z-Rest pad, folded flat and placed in the Pocket, can't prevent the barrel effect. The pack still works well, but I feel that the barrel shape presses the pack closer to my back and as such results in less back ventilation. The barreling also occurs with the stays in, but it seems to be milder. With the stays in, I'm not certain it's really necessary to utilize the Pad Pocket, except to keep hard items in the pack from pressing into the wearer's back. Without the stays, I think the Pad Pocket is a nifty way to contain the sleeping pad (in my other frameless packs I've had a devil of a time keeping a folded pad in place while I packed the rest of my gear) and provide some shape to the pack. However, without the stays the Comet does lose quite a bit of shape and the load-lifter straps become much less useful. A standard 20 in/51 cm wide sleeping pad, folded and standing on its side, is simply not tall enough to act as a true framesheet for a frameless pack. I've had the idea to try packing something in the Pad Pocket underneath the pad, to raise the pad up to the top of the packbag, but I haven't tried this yet. It will have to be saved for my Long Term Report.

Nitpicks & Complaints:

Some of the seams holding the extension collar onto the main packbag have begun to come undone. There are two rows of seams, so this shouldn't become a problem any time soon, but it is worth noting.

The compression straps run over the rear mesh pocket. This means that if the straps are tightened, the rear pocket is divided into two halves and items at the bottom of the pocket cannot be accessed until the center compression strap is released. This is a compromise that has to be made if the Comet is to have compression straps - even if there was a way to run the compression straps under the pocket, it would be complicated and might also create packing problems for the pocket.

Two potential problems with the shoulder straps' attachment point. The top of the straps come together into a "Y" that then attaches at a single point behind the wearer's back. The tail of the "Y" feeds through a slider, which makes the pack adjustable. If the pack is being used without a hipbelt and with more weight than is recommended (like, say, 3 gallons of ice cubes plus essentials), the shoulder strap adjustment webbing can slip out of the slider, causing the pack to drop a bit and putting all the stress on the load-lifter straps. The other problem arises with shirtless hiking (or with wearing a top that is low-cut in the back). The webbing and the adjustment slider can rub against the user's back, which will eventually abrade the skin. My trips with the Comet have all been short, so I have only experienced mild irritation, but I have had other packs do this on longer trips and it gets downright painful.

The thinner webbing used for the pack is very stubborn about moving through any sliders. This is great for staying in place, but maddening when I'm trying to make adjustments while wearing the pack and walking. Also, the sliders that make the bottoms of the shoulder straps adjustable have small burrs on the plastic that occasionally scratch my arms when I rub against them.

But even with these minor concerns, I'm very happy to have the Comet, and am really looking forward to my next opportunity to use it.

Tester Name: Colleen Porter
Gender: female
Age: 30
Height: 5'8"/1.73 m
Weight: 147 lb./67 kg (had the baby!)
Email address: tarbubble at yahoo dot com
Location: Orange County, CA

Backpacking Experience: I have been hiking for fifteen years, backpacking for eight. I've only been serious about it in the last three and a half years. I mostly hike on established trails – bushwhacking is rarely planned. I like gear to be simple and light, and I do make some of my own equipment. On my own I pack pretty light (about thirteen lbs/6 kilograms base weight) and am always trying to get lighter, but I am often on family trips with my three-year-old son and the weight usually doubles. My 3-season backpacking haunts are the San Gabriels, the Sierra Nevada, and the Grand Canyon, and winters find me in the Mojave and Colorado deserts.

Read more reviews of Six Moon Designs gear
Read more gear reviews by Colleen Porter

Reviews > Packs > Frameless Backpacks and Day Packs > Six Moon Designs Comet > Colleen Porter > Field Report

All material on this site is the exclusive property of BackpackGearTest.org.
BackpackGearTest software copyright David Anderson